A Handful of Dust
by TeatimeGeek
Summary: Not every man was lucky enough to find a girl who was also a fellow pilot, someone who understood the rush of power when you lift the hands of a giant, the sense of duty as you strap into the cockpit, or the breakfast that came back up into your mouth when the vernier thrusters push past 5 Gs.


Hilde welcomed most stray cats, they kept the salvage yard vermin-free. She doubted that Duo actually disliked the cats, but he wrinkled up his forehead and sighed with a long-suffering look whenever she lured in a new kitten. "And here I thought having a boyfriend precluded you from becoming a cat-lady." He would say, half in jest.

Today was a day off, but Duo learned from experience never to sleep in, lest your new friend steals half your mobile suit. He sat on the front steps of the house, and stared at the ever-growing herd of cats fight over his breakfast scraps. Hilde shuffled out in soft slippers and handed him a hot mug of coffee. "Scar Face over there reminds me of Heero." He said to her, and sipped noisily. She sat down beside him, the chill of the concrete seeped through her thin leggings to creep up her spine, she shivered and cradled her cup closer. The grouchy old tomcat glared at them across the yard, mouse in jaw. Hilde cooed and made kissy noises at the animal, but he just blinked his one good eye, and disappeared behind an old electric oven. "See what I mean? He doesn't play with others, and runs away from pretty girls."

"He still hasn't called?"

Duo shook his head, and brooded over his mug. It's been over a year since they closed the investigation on the Christmas Eve coup, after which both former pilots resigned from the Preventers. "Can I still call him my best friend if I'm not even sure he's alive or dead?" Duo was clinking his teeth absentmindedly on the rim of his mug, Hilde tsked and put a hand on his coffee to stop it. He pressed his lips to her fingers and sighed through his nose like a tuckered out dog.

"At least he's a low-maintenance friend." Hilde offered with sympathy. "Father Maxwell used to say there are two lines of people, the very long line of those who want to be loved, and the very short line of people who want to love." He turned his gaze to her and rested his cheek on her dainty knuckles, "Somehow Heero is not in either of those lines."

The cats finished their breakfast, and began wandering about the yard. A light tabby one came up to the house and flopped by the front steps, eyeing the couple expectantly with its exposed belly. Hilde caved and reached over to rub its fluffy underside, as Duo whined quietly to the loss of her hand. "Oh I don't know about that, the way he went after Relena all those times..." Hilde said, her hand progressed up to the cat's chin, which had begun trilling loudly in the morning hush. "It shouldn't take an emergency for him to grace us with his presence, though."

"I'm told it's not good form to wish for disaster..." Duo said as he put down his mostly empty mug, and stood up to stretch, cracking his tailbone like a knuckle. The tabby, spooked by his sudden movement, scampered away. Hilde rose to her feet as well and hugged him mid-stretch, so he let his arms come down to rest on her shoulders.

"One of these days we oughta visit Earth, beautiful view of the moon, real rain, the sea...you'd love it." His breath smelled of coffee. "If this is some ploy to fake an attack to bait Heero, count me out." she leaned away from him, skeptical. He grinned winningly and kissed her slow and sound, until she closed her eyes from vertigo, until she almost forgot what he was trying to distract her from. Almost. "Lies of omission are still lies, choir boy." she chided gently, out of breath. Duo considered it for a moment, then decided to low mumble Fly Me To The Moon in her ear. He swayed the both of them in a mock slow dance, voice gravelly like a slightly off tune electric guitar. Hilde's blood thrummed at a delicious frequency.

It still bothered her, how easily he snuck past her tomboy defenses and made her all girlish and vulnerable. The first time she kissed him, she was completely unprepared for how soft his lips were, it was as if the artificial gravity suddenly malfunctioned, her fuzzy brain offered her something about love and falling, useless brain. To regain a sense of control, Hilde walked with extra swagger and talked gruff for three days after that kiss. She was an independent, self-reliant, cantankerous woman. She joined the military based on her strong convictions, and could match any OZ recruit in marksmanship. She has faced death afloat in a corpse of an MS, not knowing when or where the killing blow would land...

How dare he reduce her to puddy with the mere touch of his lips?

Duo finished humming the last few notes of the song, his nimble hands sneaked lower than was proper behind her. Their voyage to the moon had been fateful and terrifying. Through plates of steel and the mechanical distance between their Leos, they saw each other for the first time. His hands tightened around her at the thought of that confrontation, she was discharged just in time, the war was ramping up and eventually she would have had to fight on the front lines. She would have had to kill, and carry a blood guilt to her grave. For all the toughness she exhibited, he knew that Hilde was a kind-hearted girl. Growing up under the boot of the Alliance made her hard, but he seemed drawn to these types.

Hilde sensed the change in him. "What's up?" She looked up and asked. Duo blinked at her, "Not every OZ pilot was lucky enough to survive meeting a Gundam pilot." Ah, so that's where his mind went. "The jury's still out on that." She said teasingly, and led him by the hand back into the house.

Some days Duo rolls out of the right side of bed, and all was well with the world. This was going to be one of those days.


End file.
